Wembley Stadium (1923)

For the new stadium, see Wembley Stadium.

Wembley

The Twin Towers
Former names	Empire Stadium British Stadium
Location	London, England
Capacity	82,000 (originally 127,000)
Surface	Grass
Construction
Broke ground	1922
Opened	1923
Closed	2000
Demolished	2003
Construction cost	£750,000 GBP (1923)
Tenants
England national football team

File:Watkins Tower.jpg

The uncompleted Watkin's Tower was on the original Wembley site prior to the stadium's construction.

The original Wembley Stadium was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium.

First known as the Empire Stadium, the original stadium was built by Sir Robert McAlpine for the British Empire Exhibition of 1923, at a cost of £750,000, on the former site of Watkin's Tower. Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton were the architects and Sir Owen Williams was the Head Engineer. Originally intended to be demolished at the end of the Exhibition, it was saved at the suggestion of Sir James Stevenson, a Scot who was chairman of the organising committee for the Empire Exhibition.

The stadium's distinctive Twin Towers became its trademark. Also well known were the thirty nine steps needed to be climbed to reach the Royal box and collect a trophy (and winners'/losers' medals). Wembley was the first pitch to be referred to as "Hallowed Turf", with many stadia around the world borrowing this phrase.

The stadium's first turf was cut by King George V and it was first opened to the public on 28 April 1923. In 1934 the Empire Pool was built. The Wembley Stadium Collection is held by the National Football Museum.

The stadium closed in October 2000 and was demolished in early 2003 for redevelopment.

Football

White Horse Cup Final

Crowds define the edges of the pitch and watch from the roof.

The Empire Stadium was built in exactly 300 days at the cost of £750,000. Described as the world's greatest sporting arena (at the time), it was ready only 4 days before the White Horse Final. The FA had not considered admission by ticket, grossly under-estimating the anticipation of the number of fans turning up to the 104 gates on matchday. However, after the game, every event since has been ticketed.

Billie the White Horse, saviour of the 1923 FA Cup Final.

The first event held at the stadium was the FA Cup final on 28 April 1923 between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United. This is known as the White Horse Final. Such was the eagerness of fans and casual observers to attend the final at the new national stadium that vast numbers of people crammed through the 104 turnstiles into the stadium, far exceeding its official 127,000 capacity. The crowds overflowed onto the pitch as there was no room on the terraces. Estimates of the number of fans in attendance range from 240'000 to well over 300,000. It is estimated that another 60,000 were locked outside the gates. The FA were forced to refund 10% of the total gate money to fans unable to reach their seats. The White Horse Final has the highest ever unofficial "non-racing" sports attendance in the world, which is very unlikely to be broken in the near future. This claim, however, is disputed, as the Maracana held (officially) 199,854 fans during the 1950 World Cup final match between Brazil and Uruguay.

It was thought that the match would not be played because of the volume of spectators inside the stadium that had spilled onto the pitch. That was until mounted police, including Police Constable George Scorey and his white horse, Billie, slowly pushed the masses back to the sides of the field of play for the FA Cup Final to start, just 45 minutes late. In honour of Billie, the footbridge outside the new Wembley Stadium has been named the White Horse Bridge. The official attendance is often quoted as 126,047. The stadium also sported the largest football pitch in the world until it was made smaller to conform to FIFA regulations.

The "Matthews Final"

The 1953 FA Cup Final (dubbed the "Matthews" Final, after the performance of the winger) between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers featured a hat-trick by Blackpool's Stan Mortensen in his side's 4-3 win. It remained the only hat-trick ever scored in an FA Cup Final at the original Wembley.

The Home of England

File:300px-1966 final bobby moore.jpg

Bobby Moore holds aloft the Jules Rimet trophy after England win the 1966 World Cup at Wembley.

The FA Cup final was played there every year in May until 2000. It was also the venue for Finals of the FA Amateur Cup, League Cup, Associate Members' Cup and the Football League promotion play-offs.

As the home of the English national football team, in 1966 it was the leading venue of the World Cup. It hosted the final game, where the tournament hosts, England, won 4-2 after extra-time against West Germany. Thirty years later, it was the principal venue of Euro 96, hosting all of England's matches, as well as the tournament's final, where reunified Germany won the cup for a third time with the first international Golden Goal in football history.

In all, the stadium hosted five European Cup finals, including the 1963 final between AC Milan and Benfica, and the 1968 final between Manchester United and Benfica. In 1971 it again hosted the final, between Ajax and Panathinaikos, and once more in 1978, this time between Liverpool and Club Brugge. The last such occasion was in 1992, when Barcelona played Sampdoria. The FA unsuccessfully bid for the redeveloped Wembley to host the 2007 final.

Wembley has also hosted two Cup Winners' Cup finals (in 1965, when West Ham United beat 1860 Munich, and 1993). It was also the venue for Arsenal's home Champions League matches in 1998–99 and 1999–2000. It has hosted an individual club's home matches on two other occasions, in 1930 when Clapton Orient played two home Third Division South games and in 1930-31 for eight matches by non-League Ealing A.F.C.

The last FA Cup final to be played at the old Wembley saw Chelsea defeat Aston Villa with the only goal scored by Roberto Di Matteo.

David Jack scored the first goal at Wembley during the The White Horse Final in 1923.

The last goal to be scored at the old Wembley came in Kevin Keegan's last game as England manager. Manchester City midfielder Dietmar Hamann (at the time a Liverpool player) hit a low free-kick as England were beaten 0-1 by their arch-rivals Germany on October 7 2000. On that day, Tony Adams played his 60th Wembley match, setting the record for the most matches played there. As well as England appearances, his tally includes Cup Finals, Cup semi-finals, pre-season tournaments and Champions League matches for Arsenal. Fittingly, Adams captained England in that match. Peter Shilton made 58 Wembley appearances, the second highest tally.

Of Wembley Stadium, Pelé said "Wembley is the cathedral of football. It is the capital of football and it is the heart of football" in recognition of its status as the world's best-known football stadium.

Other sports

Close-up of one of the Twin Towers

Wembley was the main athletics venue for the 1948 Summer Olympics, with Fanny Blankers-Koen and Emil Zátopek among the notable winners.

In the sport of rugby league, the RFL has held its Challenge Cup final at Wembley from 1929 onwards. The stadium was also regularly used by the sport for major international matches, such as Great Britain versus Australia. The first Ashes test of 1994 is particularly well remembered by rugby league supporters.

From 1958 until the mid 1970s, hurling and gaelic football tournaments known as the "Wembley Tournaments" were held at Wembley Stadium to bring the Irish sports to expatriates in Britain at the time.

Though the venue has not traditionally been a regular host of rugby union matches, Wales played its Five Nations home matches at Wembley (as Twickenham Stadium would not accommodate them) while Cardiff Arms Park was being rebuilt as the Millennium Stadium in the late 1990s (despite being in England).

Interior of Old Wembley Stadium
(1923–2000)

The National Football League held several preseason American football games at Wembley during the 1980s and 1990s, and the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football played at the venue in 1991 and 1992. Wembley hosted the inaugural World Bowl where the Monarchs defeated the Barcelona Dragons 21-0.

As well as special events, Wembley was also a venue for regular sporting fixtures, notably in greyhound racing and motorcycle speedway. Between 1936 and 1960 it hosted all of the first fifteen stagings of the Speedway World Championship. Wembley's owner's refusal to cancel the regular greyhound racing meant that the match between Uruguay and France in the 1966 World Cup was played at White City. Wembley Stadium also staged women's field hockey matches in which England appeared in their annual match between 1951 to 1969 and then from 1971 to 1991. On May 31, 1975, in front of 90,000 people, Evel Knievel crashed while trying to land a jump over thirteen single decker city buses, an accident which resulted in his initial retirement from his daredevil life.

In 1992, the World Wrestling Federation drew a sellout of 80,355 when SummerSlam was hosted at Wembley Stadium. This was one of the biggest crowds ever at a WWE event. The main event featured English wrestler Davey Boy Smith winning the Intercontinental Championship from Bret Hart.

Music

Wembley Stadium became a musical venue in 1972 with an all-star rock 'n' roll concert. It has since played host to a number of concerts and events. Most notably the British leg of Live Aid, which featured such acts as Queen, Paul McCartney, The Who, Dire Straits and U2, was held at the stadium on 13 July 1985 . Other charity concerts to have taken place in the stadium were the 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness and the NetAid charity concert.

Acts who played at Wembley include Michael Jackson (15 times), The Rolling Stones (12 times), U2 (8 times,) Tina Turner (7 times,who had 2 sold out concerts recorded during her Twenty Four Seven Tour for the live tour DVD in the year 2000) , Prince, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, Queen (whose concert on 12 July 1986 during the "Magic" tour was recorded for a live album), Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, ABBA, Genesis, Guns N' Roses, Status Quo,Led Zeppelin,Elton John, The Beach Boys, The Eagles, New Kids on the Block (had both shows back to back sold out), Van Halen, INXS, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Bee Gees, Delirious?,Oasis (who recorded their video and album "Familiar To Millions" at Wembley), Simple Minds, The Spice Girls and Madonna. During Michael Jackson's Bad World Tour in 1988, seven sell-out concerts were staged at Wembley. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Jackson set a new world record, with 504,000 people attending the seven shows. Bon Jovi were the last musical act to play at the old Wembley before it was closed, and they were scheduled to be the first band to play at the new Wembley Stadium, with concerts on June 10 2006 and the following day. However, due to the delays in the construction of the new stadium, the concerts were moved to the National Bowl at Milton Keynes.

In fiction

• In the arcade game Revolution X, Wembley Stadium was the location of the final battle.
• There is a popular British board game from the 1960s called "Wembley" made by Ariel.
• In the 1979 TV Serial Quatermass starring John Mills, Wembley is seen as a gathering point for young people attracted there by an alien force who then kill the 80,000 or so people there in a harvest. Special effect designers covered large sections of the ground in white dust to symbolize the ashes of those taken.
• Although the expression "thirty-nine steps" may have been influenced by the book and film The Thirty-nine Steps, the book was written a decade before the stadium was built.
• One of the last filmings at the Old Wembley was for the film Mike Bassett: England Manager.
• In Viz 166 (June 2007), the comic-strip character Cockney Wanker participated in a boot sale at which he successfully passed off chunks of rubble and strips of turf as pieces of the torn-down Wembley Stadium.

External links

• Wembley Stadium Forum for all Past, Present and Future events
• Old Wembley Stadium @worldstadia.com
• Guardian newspaper History of Wembley
• Wembley trivia
• Virtual tour

51°33′19.8″N 0°16′46.9″W